Scott Morrison’s vision for Victoria unveiled

Scott Morrison says the COVID-19 vaccine will help the country return to normal and expects the MCG to be full on the last weekend of September.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Between leading the nation’s COVID-19 recovery, fixing aged care and the mental health system, and handling political challenges from Victoria to Beijing, Scott Morrison says he has a “full deck” for 2021. The Prime Minister outlines his plans for the year ahead in an exclusive interview with Herald Sun national political editor Tom Minear.

VICTORIA’S BELT AND ROAD DEAL

Victoria’s Belt and Road deal with China is expected to be torn up as soon as next month, with Mr Morrison saying he has not seen any benefits from the controversial contract.

The Prime Minister last year urged Daniel Andrews to abandon the agreement — which links Victoria with the Communist Party’s trillion-dollar soft power infrastructure effort — and then created laws allowing the federal government to cancel it.

Mr Morrison said he would not “pre-empt” that process, which requires state governments to inform the commonwealth of their agreements with foreign powers by March 10.

Morrison and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews have not seen eye-to-eye over the Belt and Road deal.

But he sent a clear signal to the Premier that the deal was unlikely to stand, even after the Chinese government cited the Prime Minister’s move to “torpedo” the agreement as one of its key grievances with Australia.

“I haven’t seen the benefits of it,” Mr Morrison said.

“If there are benefits, what are they and what was paid for them? I don’t have the answers to those questions at this point, but the assessment of those arrangements will continue.”

He reaffirmed that federal policy would determine foreign relations.

“That’s a very important principle … There has to be consistency when national governments deal with other national governments,” Mr Morrison said.

MENTAL HEALTH REFORMS

Victoria will be the trial site for a redesigned mental healthcare system that supports patients who have been lost in the gap between GPs and acute care in hospitals.

With the state’s royal commission to hand down its findings this month, Mr Morrison said he and Mr Andrews were hopeful “our governments can set the model on mental health”.

“If we put all our effort into trying to get it right here, then I think that means that can flow to other states,” he said.

Mr Morrison said the pair were committed to fixing the “vague, ambiguous space” between different parts of the system funded by states and the commonwealth, which headspace has filled for youths.

Mr Andrews has committed to a new mental health levy to pay for the reformed system, but Mr Morrison said it was “not about taxes”.

“Let’s just work on how we make the system better first and then we can work on how we can pay for it, and what’s reasonable investment to make in that,” he said.

The Prime Minister said he remained concerned by the ongoing mental health impact of COVID-19 restrictions, although he added that governments had been “somewhat successful” in preventing a predicted spike in suicide deaths during the pandemic.

“What we have seen is a massive spike in the use of services. That isn’t a problem, that is an expected demand for service given what was happening … and the services did the job,” he said.

Morrison has vowed to serve a full term and call the next election in 2022.

VICTORIA’S MAJOR EVENTS

Melburnians should expect to see a full house at the MCG in time for this year’s AFL Grand Final.

With the COVID-19 vaccine rollout to be completed in October, Mr Morrison said that would mean “we will have gone over the hump by that period of time”.

“How quickly crowds build up in the early part of the season, whether in Victoria or anywhere else, will be a bit like the vaccine — it’s going to start slow and it’s going to ramp up,” he said.

He said that while it was still unclear how effectively the vaccine would reduce transmission of COVID-19, its ability to prevent severe disease meant Australia would face a “different virus”.

“It’s a different thing to manage,” Mr Morrison said.

“As that builds, of course you would expect the settings to change from states.”

He praised the Victorian government’s efforts to put on the Australian Open, and said that he wanted Australia to target other major events this year.

“I take the example of the film industry — we’re already doing it,” Mr Morrison said.

“We went after them, we put a tax incentive in place, we went out there and said: ‘You should be doing this here because we’re managing COVID better than any other part of the world’.”

MELBOURNE’S CBD

Mr Morrison turned up the heat on Mr Andrews to allow more workers to return to their offices, saying it was crucial for the CBD’s economic recovery.

Increases to worker caps have been paused multiple times amid outbreaks over summer, and the Premier said he did not expect 100 per cent of workers would ever return to the city.

Mr Morrison said that while workplaces would likely be more flexible as a result of the pandemic, Melbourne was particularly reliant on a buzzing CBD.

He said he wanted commonwealth public servants back in their offices as soon as possible under state health orders.

“For Melbourne in particular, the CBD is such a part of their economic life, arguably a lot more than most cities in the country,” Mr Morrison said.

“Maintaining a vibrant CBD for Melbourne is incredibly important for Victoria’s economic prosperity and future and employment. For that to occur, people have got to work there and be there.

“I think this is a big challenge for all of us this year.”

Mr Morrison wants to see Melbourne’s CBD bounce back. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Daniel Pockett

DOMESTIC VACCINE PRODUCTION

Mr Morrison outlined his ambition to turn Australia into a global vaccine powerhouse, equipped to produce doses created with new technology pioneered in the race to cure COVID-19.

While CSL is making 50 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Melbourne, Australia is not one of the limited number of countries able to make new mRNA vaccines.

But the government has already identified some companies with the capability to produce mRNA jabs — which could provide future COVID-19 boosters or treat other diseases — and is examining whether they could scale up their operations in the future.

Mr Morrison said the molecular clamp technology used in the ill-fated University of Queensland coronavirus vaccine was also “really exciting”, and that they continued to receive government support.

“We’ve very committed to vaccine self-sufficiency,” he said.

“We want to be a serious, world-regarded producer of vaccines, and so that means you’ve got to work right across the park.”

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

Australian universities say they lost $1.8bn last year and are on track to lose another $2bn this year, largely because of border closures keeping out overseas students.

Mr Morrison said the pandemic had “highlighted a vulnerability” in the tertiary sector’s business model, and he expected universities to adapt like any other business.

“I think it’s always time for universities to consider their economic model,” he said.

“I’d be surprised if it had taken them this long to do that thinking.”

The Prime Minister said he wanted universities to focus on collaborating with industry and establishing commercial partnerships to tackle the “big challenges” facing Australia, including on vaccines, energy and digital technologies.

“These terrible events have caused many businesses to think about their model again, and for many, they’ve found new models and they’ve been very successful … I wouldn’t expect universities to respond any differently to any other business,” Mr Morrison said.

“Other businesses are doing that, so why wouldn’t they?”

Morrison hopes to turn Australia into a global vaccine powerhouse

AGED CARE WORKFORCE

Pay rises for aged care workers may be part of the federal government’s response to the long-running royal commission into the system, which will deliver its recommendations next week.

Mr Morrison said salary rates would be part of the conversation to resolve the significant workforce challenge that looms to care for Australia’s ageing population.

“Does that have some role to play? I suspect so, but it’s not just as simple as that,” he said.

Mr Morrison said training and career progression was also crucial, as he emphasised his willingness to invest in the national skills system, as long as it was improved in conjunction with the states.

He described aged and disability care as “big job engines for the next five to 10 years”.

THE NEXT ELECTION

While Mr Morrison has vowed to serve a full term and call the next election in 2022, speculation is mounting in Canberra that he will send the country to the polls later this year if the vaccine rollout is successful.

But senior government sources have told the Herald Sun that a key factor in Mr Morrison’s caution about an early election is the disastrous experience of former UK prime minister Theresa May.

She called an snap election in 2017, having previously ruled out an early election, and was tipped into minority government.

It was later reported that veteran Australian political strategist Sir Lynton Crosby had warned her of the risk of a snap poll amid the uncertainty caused by the Brexit vote.

Asked about this, Mr Morrison said he “would have had a chat to Lynton subsequent to that election”.

He said he had “been very consistent about these issues” and that calling an election in 2021 was “just not in my frame”.

“I’ve got a pretty full deck over the course of this year. They elected me to do that job for that term, and so I intend to do it,” Mr Morrison said.